1. Field of the Invention
A disposable fat-absorbing, generally flat, malleable thin, rectangular foil cooking sheet.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When a person cooks by heating from about (broiling) a fat-containing food such as meat, fish or poultry, two problems arise, both of which usually accompany the presence of food in an oven. One of these is the liquification of the fat in the food, and the other is a vaporization of the liquified fat which thereupon splatters indiscriminately onto the inner surfaces of the oven. The splattered fat fouls the oven which has to be cleaned by a meticulous housewife after every such use. Moreover, the splattering fat will burn anyone in front of an open door of the oven. Another problem is associated with the liquified fat that is collected in a pan beneath the food, poured into a receptacle, allowed to harden and then placed in the garbage.
It would be desirable to have a sheet suitable for placement under food in a broiling chamber so that hot liquid fat, oil, grease, juices, etc., being discharged during broiling, baking or other cooking mode is absorbed and collected and does not accumulate in the heating or broiling chamber. This accumulation in prior cooking practices lead to splattering and dirtying of the oven, small fat fires, skin burns on the person handling hot liquid fat if it was spilled or splashed, and generally unsanitary conditions in the kitchen, etc.
Typical of the prior art are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,415,662 and 3,453,949. These patents are examples of the irrelevance of the earlier patents in this field. They disclose pans and packages.
The former, namely pans, are made of heavy-grade aluminum foil which are manufactured in the shapes of cooking receptacles, e.g., pans with high sides, and hence are bulky to ship by the manufacturer and to store by the distributor, retailer and housewife. Moreover, they are expensive to make since they entail the use of thick aluminum foil and the time and expense of processing such foil to a three dimensional configuration. Such pans incorporate the parameters of older cooking pans such as cast iron and thick metal pans in that they are rigid and heavy, and utilize sloping sidewalls, all of which are disadvantageous to and unnecessary for cooking sheets.
The latter, namely packages, are far more complex than need be for cooking sheets. Since the packages are structured for a purpose entirely different from that of cooking sheets, that is to say because they are structured to completely cover and protect food, this being unnecessary and undesirable for cooking sheets, the packages are impractical and indeed unuseable as cooking sheets.
Other patents relate to articles which are not pertinent for the reasons above-mentioned and for other causes; these patents are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,026,209; 3,127,828; 3,411,433; 3,613,555 and 3,704,142.